Vision Research Advances the Boundaries On The World’s Fastest Ultrahigh-Speed Digital Camera

The Phantom v2511 Increases Performance, Flexibility and Light Sensitivity with A Market-Leading 25,600 Frames-Per-Second at 1 Megapixel Resolution

07/09/2014

Vision Research, a leading manufacturer of digital high-speed imaging systems, has announced the release of the Phantom v2511, the most light sensitive, flexible and highest-performance ultrahigh-speed camera on the market.  The Phantom v2511 can capture up to 25,600 frames-per-second (fps) at full 1 megapixel resolution, making it the fastest member of the Phantom ultrahigh-speed digital camera line.  The v2511 also features improved sensitivity, providing better picture quality and more lighting flexibility.

“One of the challenges to capturing footage at ultrahigh speeds is ensuring adequate lighting.  At Vision Research, we are dedicated to helping our customers mitigate this challenge, and have developed our new proprietary sensor and supporting camera innovations to increase the ISO measurement of the v2511, while also increasing the camera speed,” comments Rick Robinson, Director of Marketing for Vision Research. “Vision Research takes pride in leading the high-speed industry with the world’s fastest cameras, and now better picture quality and the extra flexibility needed to make shooting in low-light and difficult-to-light scenarios less difficult.”

The new Phantom v2511 offers sensitivity as high as ISO 6400 (daylight illumination) for color images and ISO 32,000 for monochrome images. In addition to lessening the challenges of low-light scenarios, the improved ISO gives consumers the option to use a faster shutter speed, which can reduce motion blur and result in clearer images. Users also may find that they can now use lenses with smaller apertures, which are typically less expensive and easier to acquire.

Since the new Phantom v2511 is built on the same proven platform as the current Phantom ultrahigh-speed 1Mpx cameras, it is fully compatible with all current accessories and software options. This eliminates the additional expense of purchasing new accessories and requiring additional training time, which are both often synonymous with equipment upgrades.

As with all Phantom ultrahigh-speed cameras, the new Phantom v2511 sets the bar in camera connectivity. The camera back panel provides easy access to all camera connections and controls, including two HS-SDI ports and a 10GB Ethernet connection along with the standard 1GB Ethernet connection.

Phantom CineMag Workflow

The v2511 comes equipped with Vision Research’s breakthrough CineMag interface, which allows the user to save a high-speed shot from camera memory to non-volatile storage in a matter of seconds. With the ability to save 1GB/s of data to an attached CineMag, a 96GB shot can be saved in about 1.5 minutes.

Advanced Features

The new v2511 also has many advanced features that have become standard as a result of customer feedback, providing specific features that many scientists and researchers have asked for.  These features include an image-based auto-trigger that allows the camera to be triggered from the motion of the live images, making infrequent or unpredictable events easier to record on camera.

The v2511 also has an internal mechanical shutter that makes it easier to obtain a black reference for truer high-quality images.  If users are recording back-to-back, they will want to make use of the Multi-Cine option, which allows them to partition internal memory into segments and make shorter recordings without missing any action.

On the other hand, customers, who need to record many occurrences of an unpredictable event, can use the continuous recording feature.  This allows a recorded cine to automatically save to a disk drive on a connected PC and then re-arms the camera to catch the next occurrence.  If a customer is using the v2511 camera in a measurement application like Particle Image Velocimetry or Particle Tracking Velocimetry, it has extremely accurate timing with super-low straddle time of 500 ns.   It also operates in burst mode to capture images at precise moments, and allows a customer to turn off the fan to eliminate vibrations, which may interfere with some experiments.

The Phantom v2511 starts shipping in late August.  In addition, Vision Research operates AMEcare performance sites around the world for truly global service, training and support. For more information please visit: www.visionresearch.com/Service–Support/.

To find out the latest on Vision Research and its high-speed cameras, follow it on Twitter at @PhantomHiSpeed, LinkedIn at Vision Research, Facebook at “visionresearch” or keep up to date with the innovations on the Vision Research blog at www.visionresearch.com/blog